The most common Vastu problems are not the problem of a single room. The bedroom may be correctly aligned, but the toilet door faces the bed. The puja room may be correctly located in the northeast corner of the building, but the bathroom on the floor above may be directly over the puja room.
The mandir may have been correctly constructed, but it ends up under the staircase because there was nowhere else to put it. These are problems of one room impacting another. These are the most common types of problems found in Nepal. Most of the problems are avoidable. Most houses have the solution to the problem without breaking a wall.
This is the Vastu issue you will hear about most in Nepal. The Puja Room and Bathroom are located side by side but symbolise two opposite ends of home life: one is the sacred heart of your home, while the other is a place of waste disposal and water drainage. The shared wall between these two spaces is a subtle energy clash that makes Nepali home dwellers uneasy.
Why it happens: In small spaces, the Puja Room is often inserted into the home plan last, after the bedrooms, kitchen, bathrooms, etc., are already planned.
New-build fix: Plan your home first, then insert your rooms into that plan. All bathrooms should be located in the northwest, west, or south direction of your home. The Puja Room should be located in the Northeast direction of your home. This single decision during your home's drawing phase eliminates this Vastu Problem altogether.
Renovation fix: A thick wall or storage area could be built between these two spaces. A practical solution is to relocate your mandir to a wall-mounted cabinet on the Northeast wall of your living room, away from your shared bathroom wall.
For specific Puja Room Vastu advice in Nepal, please refer to our Puja Room Vastu in Nepal page. For specific Bathroom Vastu advice in Nepal, please refer to our Bathroom Vastu in Nepal page.
The clash occurs mainly in multi-storey houses. You can see a lot of this phenomenon occurring in Nepal since buildings are commonly constructed up to three or four storeys. A family may decide to construct their puja room in the northeast corner of the ground floor. However, the plumbing for the bathroom on the floor above may be stacked on top of the floor below, resulting in the toilet sitting above the mandir.
Why it happens: The best position for wet areas like bathrooms is stacked one above the other for multi-storey buildings. The clash occurs when the stacked wet area is positioned over the northeast corner.
Fix for the new house: The position of the puja room needs to be planned first. Then the position of the stacked wet area needs to be planned avoiding the puja room position on all floors. This is a simple instruction to be included in the structural drawings. This does not cost anything but needs to be done during planning.
Existing home fix: The mandir on the ground floor needs to be moved from the northeast corner to the north wall of the living room. This is an easy solution to the problem and requires no structural changes.
One of the most common complaints people have about the layout of their bedrooms in Nepal is the placement of the bed directly opposite the door to the toilet. This is disconcerting not just on the grounds of Vastu Shastra principles, but also on the grounds of hygiene, the absence of visual privacy, and the rather unwholesome association most people have between the toilet and the bed.
Why it happens: Bathroom doors are typically placed wherever there is wall space to spare. There is hardly any control during the design phase to see whether the door is aligned to the bed or not.
How to fix it: If the room size permits, the easiest solution is to turn the bed so it faces a wall. If this is not possible, you can install a wardrobe, a partition, or a screen between the bed and the toilet door. If you are not willing to spend money on construction, you can simply rehang the bathroom door so that it faces a different direction. Full bedroom layout guidance is in our bedroom Vastu in Nepal guide.
A staircase above indeed collects a lot of foot traffic, while below it is a cramped, stuffy, poorly lit area. The puja room, on the other hand, requires quiet, steadiness, and openness, three requirements that do not match a place under the staircase.
There is another point that needs attention: besides the Vastu point, a low, enclosed area under the staircase is difficult to maintain in a clean, well-lit condition, which does not suit a puja room.
Fix: The puja area needs to be relocated to a stable spot on a northeast- or north-facing wall in the living room. A wall-mounted mandir cabinet is a suitable option. If the staircase encroaches on the corner meant for the puja room, a defined area on another wall needs to be created by separating it from the staircase by a partition.
If the front door opens directly onto the toilet entrance or the mandir, it creates a visual and energetic snag at the entry. This is often the case with small Nepalese home plans, which allow us to see into the living area from the moment we enter.
Fix: a half-partition or screen just inside the entry door or a feature wall creates a new line of sight and a clear entry transition space. This does not require any major construction work and will greatly alter the home's feel from the moment we enter.
The easiest and most assured way to avoid all five conflicts described above is to first plan the zones, then the rooms.
Quiet Zone - Bedroom & Puja Room: These rooms need quietness and directionality. The most favorable directions for these rooms are northeast, east, or south. These rooms must be located away from wet zones and high-traffic areas.
Wet Zone - Bathrooms, Toilets & Laundry Rooms: These rooms must be grouped together. They must be stacked on top of each other if the home is a multi-story home. These rooms must be located in the northwest, west, or south direction.
Social Zone - Living Room, Dining & Kitchen: This zone is all about movement and action. This zone will also serve to buffer the quiet zone from the wet zone if the rooms are planned correctly.
By planning these three zones first, most all conflicts in a Vastu home layout will disappear. A correction in the planning stage will cost nothing. A correction in the construction stage, after the footings have been poured, can be costly. For a deeper explanation of our home layout planning process, visit our How It Works page.
Before you finalise any Nepal house plan, go through these checks:
In a Nepali home, Vastu issues are rarely due to a single area not fitting well in its position. The issues usually arise from the relationship between the rooms. Even a bathroom that is correctly positioned next to a puja room may still cause tension if the overall positioning has not been done with the relationship between the rooms in mind. The overall positioning is important, not the individual parts.
The earlier you start looking at the relationships among the rooms in your home, the easier it will be to make changes. At Jadan Construction Group, we help our clients with the logic of room zoning before any framing or structural decisions are made. This is because we have found that the decisions made on the drawing board are the ones that will make the difference in the comfort of the home for generations to come.
If you are considering a new home or a renovation project, we encourage you to contact us with your plot direction and a basic floor plan sketch. We will ensure that the positioning is correct before a single wall is built.
Vastu says no. While designing your home, mark the wet areas and Puja Room locations on opposite sides of your floor plan. But if you already have your home built, you can relocate your Puja Room away from the common wall and install a divider between them. To know more, you can refer to our Puja Room Vastu page.
This is a very common problem faced by people living in multi-storey buildings in Nepal. In a newly constructed house, you can keep your bathrooms away from the area directly above your Puja Room. But if you already own your home, you can relocate your Puja Room to the ground floor.
To solve this problem, you can turn your bed away from your toilet door or install a wardrobe between your bed and the toilet door. Relocating your toilet door is also a very cost-effective solution. To know more, you can refer to our Bedroom Vastu page.
Yes, it is possible for a Puja Room to be located in your living room. A wall-mounted Puja Room located on your living room’s northeast or north wall is a very common solution for Nepalis living in apartments. The area should be clean, you should install a cabinet with a door, and it should not be located next to your bathroom.
First, instead of planning for rooms, try planning for zones. Place the puja room in the northeast direction. Place all wet areas in the northwest or west direction. Let the living and dining rooms act as a buffer between these two. In a multi-story house, try to stack bathrooms. Never have a wet area above, below, or adjacent to the puja space. Share your plot with us, and we will guide you step by step.
